HOW TO: Set up Gmail for Hosted Servers

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Google has a great service providing 2GB of mail for users and small business which is cost-effective and stable. I have found that it’s better than trying to use some of the email subscriptions with paid hosting services. Some domains offer email for free, some at an additional cost, while Gmail offers it for free.

This is a tutorial about how to setup your MX records to use the Gmail hosting services using (dv) Media Temple servers. This is only for Media Temple users!

  1. Login to the Media Temple AccountCenter
  2. Click on the domain you wish to setup
  3. Click on the Edit Zone File link
  4. Delete any existing records marked as type MX
  5. Click the button called Add a Record seven (7) times; this will add enough entries for all the records. You will notice that your domain name is automatically added to the Name column. Leave these as they are.
  6. Change each of the values in the Type column to MX
  7. Copy and paste each line below to the Data column of each row created; be absolutely sure you include the period at the end and the entire text. This is also only for Media Temple users!
  8. Click the Save button when all entries are made
  9. Send an email to your account
  10. Check your email at the link http://mail.google.com/hosted/YOURDOMAIN.com

The data to be used for easy copy and paste.

  • 1 aspmx.l.google.com.
  • 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
  • 5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
  • 10 aspmx2.googlemail.com.
  • 10 aspmx3.googlemail.com.
  • 10 aspmx4.googlemail.com.
  • 10 aspmx5.googlemail.com.

When you are completed with this tutorial, you will have changed your DNS entries to communicate with the Gmail servers and be able to send and receive email using their services.

If you are interested in setting up a subdomain called webmail (http://webmail.YOURDOMAIN.com) to make the url more friendly, then follow these instructions.

  1. In Google email services change the url to a custom url like webmail. More details on this are not provided here, but can be found at Google help.
  2. Login to the Media Temple AccountCenter
  3. Get to the Edit Zone File page from the Domain page
  4. Click the button Add a Record
  5. Update the Name column to prefix your domain name so it reads webmail.yourdomain.com
  6. Change the Type to CNAME
  7. Add the value ghs.google.com to the Data column
  8. Click the Save button to commit your changes

After a few hours everything should be working. Test your new subdomain using the link http://webmail.YOURDOMAIN.com.

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